SpiNNaker Proxy

A small proxy utility which allows reliable basic operation of SpiNNaker boards over the open internet.

In particular, the proxy enables reliably booting SpiNNaker boards over the open internet, a task usually made impossible by the need to communicate via port 54321 (which is filtered out by many ISPs). On top of this, the boot protocol relies on reliable delivery of UDP packets which is simply unrealistic on the open internet.

Typical usage is as follows:

             LAN              .  Internet  .       User's Machine
                              .            .
+-----------+     +--------+  .            .  +--------+     +-----------+
| SpiNNaker |<===>| Proxy  |<================>| Proxy  |<===>| SpiNNaker |
| Board     |     | Server |  .            .  | Client |     | Software  |
+-----------+     +--------+  .            .  +--------+     +-----------+
                              .            .

Where SpiNNaker software is a tool like ybug or rig.

By transmitting boot packets using a different port number between the proxy client and server, the packets are not stripped out by most ISPs. Further, the proxy can use TCP to send boot packets between the client and server to ensure no packets are dropped while crossing the internet.

Installation

The proxy can be installed from PyPi as follows:

pip install spinnaker_proxy

Alternatively, you can install the script manually using setuptools from a checked out copy of this repository:

python setup.py install

Quick-Start

On a machine on the same LAN as the SpiNNaker machine you wish to use, run the following to start an instance of the proxy server:

spinnaker_proxy.py -s SPINN_HOSTNAME

Where SPINN_HOSTNAME is the hostname of the SpiNNaker board. On the machine you are running SpiNNaker software:

spinnaker_proxy.py -c PROXY_SERVER_HOSTNAME

Where PROXY_SERVER_HOSTNAME is the hostname of the machine you started the proxy server on. You can now point your SpiNNaker software at localhost and everything should work normally.

Reliable Booting: TCP Tunneling

The proxy can optionally tunnel boot commands via a TCP connection. To do this simply add the -t flag to both the proxy server and client:

# Proxy Server
spinnaker_proxy.py -s -t SPINN_HOSTNAME

# Proxy Client
spinnaker_proxy.py -c -t PROXY_HOSTNAME

Default Ports

By default the following ports are used between the proxy server and client.

These can be changed using command line options which can be listed using spinnaker_proxy.py --help.

Warnings

The proxy will only forward SCP and boot commands. To send/recieve SDP packets to/from a machine you should communicate directly with the machine, bypassing the proxy.

The proxy server will behave oddly if mutliple proxy clients attempt to connect.

The proxy client will behave oddly if mutliple applications attempt to connect.